Warning! This article contains spoilers from HBO’s Game of Thrones series.

In the HBO series Game of Thrones — based on George R. R. Martin’s voluminous saga, A Song of Ice and Fire — almost every single character is subject to a series of disasters both big and small. Take for instance the infamous “Battle of the Bastards” from Season 6’s penultimate episode…

One moment, we are cheering for Jon Snow to rundown Ramsay Bolton for killing Rickon during the battlefield exchange. The next moment, we are cursing the screen as our hero is swallowed up by a crushing sea of human fighters. It really looks like Jon Snow is about to actually croak — for good this time!

Fortunate for him, he has the help of Sansa Stark and her Knights of the Vale. They rush in, on white horses with beautiful banners waving, and rescue Jon Snow and what remains of his forces.

So what’s that got to do with your business?

You may very well experience a disaster, and like Jon Snow, find your business surrounded by threats. Disasters take many forms, including human error, cyberattacks, and even natural disasters.

If your business is struck by a disaster of any kind, you’ll want to make sure you are prepared. If you watch “The Battle of the Bastards” closely, you’ll see that Sansa shows up to save the day with one heck of a disaster recovery plan.

Guess what? You need one, too. Here’s why…

Downtime

When the Knights of the Vale ride in and crush Ramsay’s army, they are living proof of the benefits of redundancies. But what if Sansa hadn’t roused the Vale? It’s likely that all of Jon Snow’s allies would have been destroyed by the Bolton army and subsequently turned into Westerosi worm food. In other words, they would be closed for business.

In your business, you want to work with a managed service provider who can help you create a data recovery plan as awesome as Sansa’s call to arms. Why? Because downtime is bad for business.

The data we have on downtime is just as terrifying as coming across The Hound when he’s hungry and you’re holding the last chicken in the pub. “98% of organizations say a single hour of downtime costs over $100,000…and a record 33% of enterprises report that one hour of downtime costs their firms $1 million to over $5 million”.

If your business experiences downtime due to any disaster, you will likely suffer a significant financial burden.

The best managed service providers (MSPs) will work with you to make sure that your business stays open and operational no matter what event might attempt to cripple your network or infrastructure.

Availability

On Game of Thrones, you’ll never see a character like Euron Greyjoy make sure his opponent has plenty of rest, or wait until the weather is better for his enemy, before he makes his naval attack.

Cyberattacks like malware and ransomware are the same type of villain as Euron Greyjoy. They will strike at the most inopportune time. If you’re like Daenerys Stormborn, you’re lucky enough to have a dragon or three on call to combat Euron. If you’re a smart business, you’ll have a disaster recovery plan in place for the same reason.

Your disaster recovery plan should always provide 24/7/365 recovery support to your business. It doesn’t matter if you’re fighting White Walkers or ransomware, the best disaster recovery plan is the one that is always available.

Data Backup

In Season 5, Jon’s own men turn against him and murder him. In a way, that’s actually very similar to what happens at a lot of businesses. “From 20 years of collecting incident data, Uptime Institute has determined that human error is responsible for approximately 70% of all data center incidents.”

When an employee accidentally compromises your business, you need to make sure a disaster recovery plan is in place to restore the data that you might lose.

Remember that time Jon Snow died and then Melisandre brought him back to life? That’s exactly the sort of plan you want in place for your data.

Strategy

Just like the best thinkers in Game of Thrones, you’ll need to make sure that you plan for the worst. When the enemy storms your castle, will they find you prepared for a siege?

Continuity Centers has years of experience and would gladly speak with you about your data recovery plan. Send us a raven (actually, just use phone or email) and let’s have a conversation.